


Day Off

by Arlzureinne_Karale



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family, Fluff, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:38:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9307769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arlzureinne_Karale/pseuds/Arlzureinne_Karale
Summary: It was supposed to be a peaceful day off. But unfortunately, peace hated him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> End Roll belongs to Segawa. An alternate universe in which Kantera is a doctor who works in a big hospital, Tabasa had an overtime, Info is Yumi's adopted brother, Gardenia is Kantera's adopted sister, and Russell is precious as always.

He massaged his temple, tried to fight the incoming headache.

It was supposed to be his day off—his long awaited short holiday after a long sleepless months of endlessly working and researching about a certain dream medicine. He thought he could sleep all day; resting, cleaning, _breathing_ , collecting his shambled and tired thoughts.

But no, nope, nu-uh.

Sometimes the prospect of killing his blue-haired friend crossed his head, tempting him with vague whispers. Maybe he should do it in the near future, for the sake of his sanity.

The blond-haired young man stood on his doorway, eyes the shades of peridot blankly stared at five kids in front of him. He knew who left the almost emotionless sunshine-haired one, the one with blue eyes instead of green—that kid’s dark-haired brother pleaded to him, after all.

But he certainly did not signed up to take care the other four.

Who the heck was the kid with brown hair, anyway?

Someone certainly spread the news of him having day off. Most certainly that blue-haired (definitely not) friend of his. Being older sibling sure could be tiring, but it did not meant they could pushed their responsibilities to him just because they have to work until night.

The older male sighed, suddenly had the urge to slam his head against the door.

“Take off your shoes,” but he let them in anyway.

 

* * *

Walter Bartley was not impressed, and he would never.

Not until Raymond Costa drop dead, anyway. But it was near impossible because that blue-haired lad acted as if he had nine lives plus one thousand in store or maybe he had cockroaches’ almost immortal quality. Walter would not even be suprised if Raymond is still alive for a few days even if Fairia Adelista beheaded him on accident.

“... Tabasa told me to go to you ... after school,” Russell Seager quietly spoke, and Walter nodded in acceptance. Tabasa McNeil did pleaded to Walter yesterday, he wanted Walter to took care of Russell for a few hours because Tabasa possibly would has an overtime. And the researcher accepted because the sunshine-haired boy was an _okay_ kid in his opinion.

“Kantera said to follow Russell, because Raymond said you have holiday and will take care of Russell! There is an emergency in the hospital, and Kantera said it will take a loooooong time!” Gardenia Reitman cheerfully spoke, and Walter had a urge to slam his head to the table. Russell was okay, but Gardenia was almost too much for him to handle.

“Yumi is not home yet. She said if she isn’t home, I have come to you because Raymond told her you have day off and Russell will be here,” the splitting image of Russell folded his arms—the one with bright green eyes instead of deepest blue. His gaze almost mirrored Walter’s unimpressed stare; and the older male was starting to question if this kid actually came because of his older sister’s words or because Russell would be here.

“Err, my mother told me to go to Fairia, but she is not home, and I see Russell in front of your home, soo ...” the brown-haired one trailed off, and Walter remembered his name since he saw the boy several times before; Chris. Fairia was supposed to be his caretaker.

“Ray, umm, brought the keys with him. I can’t go in,” Yue mumbled, playing with the hem of her skirt. Walter choked Raymond in his head; he knew Raymond did it intentionally.

Russell and Yue were a common problem. The other three, however, were not.

But it was not like he could chased them away either.

“Fine,” the older male pinched the bridge of his nose, the headache started to killing him.

Walter glanced around, his own books and papers scattered around the living room, the dark curtains did not even drawed. Dirty dishes sat on the kitchen sink—quietly peeked as if screaming for him to wash them already. Under a normal controlled situation, Walter _always_ kept his apartement clean and tidy, scarily spotless and almost squeaky clean like Toscarinas’ apartement, but lately, he did not even coming home, let alone had time to clean his home.

The young researcher thought he would be taking care of only Russell today, so Walter only moved some of his books in the living room since Russell never protested as long as the sunshine-haired boy had enough place to sit down and quietly work on his homeworks.

Walter planned he would start cleaning after Tabasa picked up his little brother, but the plan seemed too ruined to be kept. It seemed he had to schedule another day off.

Not mention Walter did not even knew when Yumi Bombers and Raymond would come home.

Russell passively stared, Yue nervously played with the hem of his skirt, Gardenia hummed and looking around happily while Chris kept stealing glances at her, and Yumi’s little brother kept trying to distract Russell with meaningless chattering—Walter’s eyebrows arched when he remembered he only saw Yumi’s brother twice before this; _what_ was his name again?

Remind Walter again why these children’s guardian felt they had to sacrifice someone to take care of their (actually, honestly, obviously not related) little sibling despite almost all of the said children were already in their early teens.

And remind Walter again why he had to be the victim.

After a long sigh, Walter spoke, “Fine. Sit here and do your homeworks if you have on—”

Suddenly, the rings of telephone pierced the awkward ambience between Walter and the five youngsters he was supposed to take care of until night. In some quick stride, the only adult in the apartement quickly answered it, eyes narrowed when he recognised the voice of his colleague.

Oh boy, Walter suddenly knew he would not like the news his coworker brought for him.

“Walter Bartley speaking,” he grunted, and his colleague in the other side immediately shouted in relief. For the next ten minutes, the blond-haired male quietly listened to his coworker’s fast rambling. Apparently, despite they knew it was Walter’s day off, one of the higher ups decided to dumped more work to Walter’s table, along with the deadlines.

One of it dated tomorrow.

Walter knew something like this would be happening sooner or later—it was partially his fault to take a sudden day off, but if he could choose, he would like this to happen later.

Eyes a shades lighter from emerald narrowed upon shifted to five smaller forms behind him, “Listen, the kitchen is right over there, feel free to help yourselves for lunch, just put the dishes in the sink. The toilet is down this hallway. You can turn on the television, just don’t come to my room,” Walter knew he sounded like an upset housewife, and he was not pleased.

Russell and Yue nodded accordingly, Gardenia was too far gone with her sightseeing, Chris was too deep in his questionable imagination, and that splitting image of Russell actually took interest in Walter’s mountain of books. Hopefully they could manage just fine, Walter grimanced before slipped to his room and quickly turned on his computer.

He just managed to type exactly two paragraphs of report when the first commotion started.

It was actually just the sound of pans and pots clanked, along with a few silverwares, but it was still loud, nonetheless. Walter supressed the urge to go and take a look, he would clean up, right; but he would appreciate it if those children did not make even more mess.

When the kitchen finally queited down, the new commotion started from the living room.

Loud footsteps and something heavy dragged around by someone echoed. Walter could heard Yumi’s little brother whining about something, and then Russell’s eternally unamused voice answered. More footsteps were heard while the dragging sound slowly ceased, occasional sound of something heavy dropped adorning the short-lived quietness.

Walter furrowed his eyebrows, eyes the color of peridot creeped with uneasiness; seriously, what were those children doing? The image of his even more messed up living room flashed.

But before Walter could actually stood and investigate, his phone rang. Raymond’s name displayed proudly within the bright screen, and the blond-haired researcher quickly snatched his phone, answering without second thought with sole reason to yell at Raymond.

Before Raymond even uttered a word, Walter inhaled and said with one long breath, “I’ll kill you, I’ll seriously kill you and then drag you from hell to kill you again so you died twice.”

And he hung up.

 

* * *

 

When Walter finally finished with his sudden assigned report and one rough draft for his presentation, it was already dark outside. The commotion in the living room already stopped since a long time ago, and when green eyes glanced at the clock; it was nearing 10 o’clock.

The young researcher quickly stood from his seat; he forgot to make dinner for those children.

But upon opening the door, Walter immediately stopped; eyes slightly widened. To said he was astonished was an understatement, he was stunned.

The messed up living room with mountain of books and papers scattered around now looked like a decent room, the usual almost spotless Bartley style. The mountain of thick books were stacked in the farthest corner of the room while the papers were separated and placed on the table. Even the floor was cleaned thoroughly, and the neccesary lamps already turned on.

Walter shifted his gaze, sight almost immediately zeroed at five small forms sprawled on the carpeted floor, all of them fast asleep; Gardenia and Yue were facing each other—hands interwined loosely, Chris sprawled beside Gardenia, while Russell and Yumi’s brother were curled to each other. The both of them sure looked so identical, even more so when their eyes closed, Walter had to took a double glance to knew which one was Russell.

The older male shook his head and quietly walked to the kitchen.

The dirty dishes already disappeared from the sink, one of his kitchen cupboard slightly opened to displayed rows of clean plates. There was a pan on the stove, and when Walter peeked into the transparent cover, the pleasant scent of soup greeted him.

Walter did knew Gardenia has exceptional talent for cooking, but he was still suprised.

He was supposed to took care of them, yet they took care of him instead.

The blond-haired young man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose again. Walter still had works to do and deadlines to remember, but at least his house was clean now. He even got delicious homemade food, although surely Gardenia took the vegetables from his fridge.

Eyes the shades of spring ambience closed, a small smile formed on his face.

Maybe taking care of certain children in his day off was not that bad at all.

**.**

**Author's Note:**

> "Hey, Az, what do you think about Walter as an Oniichan?"
> 
> Sign me up, thank you. This is mainly based from a headcanon about how Walter could be a good older brother, fueled by a certain conversation in twitter, and my passion for Russell's interaction with Dreamsend Members. Anything will do, just please give me more Russell plus Dreamsend members, augh.
> 
> At first, Tabasa supposed to have Gardenia as little sister too, but then I remembered Kantera's hair is also the shades of platinum, so yeah, Reitman sibling suddenly born just like that. I actually like Chris! But since all I write is angst nowadays, it's hard to find the right timing to write Chris.
> 
> As always, thanks to Freyyyy for proofread this oneshot!
> 
> Sorry for any grammar mistakes, thank you for reading~!  
> -Azureinne K.


End file.
